Journal

As black market businesses become mainstream, it’s clear that mastering illicit activities can help develop a lot of business acumen.

As black market businesses become mainstream, it’s clear that mastering illicit activities can help develop a lot of business acumen.

Moonshine. Camel milk. Cannabis. Once only products of the gray and black market economies, decriminalization is bringing a new wave of underground goods to consumers across the U.S. In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, I met with Matt O’Daniel, 26, known to his friends as ODamnit. O’Daniel had been brewing do-it-yourself black market moonshine in the Ozark Mountains before he found a job at Sugarlands as a distiller. Sugarlands was founded in 2014 in a 10,000-square-foot barn in the Smoky Mountains to cater to the growing demand for legal moonshine.

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The line between paying homage to a design classic and outright piracy is fuzzy.

The line between paying homage to a design classic and outright piracy is fuzzy.

Recently, the furniture giant West Elm and the L.A.–based design studio Commune released a collection of furniture and accessories with a midcentury-inspired sensibility. But as some bloggers were quick to point out, the “midcentury-inspired” looked more like a midcentury rip-off. The ensuing debate has raised pertinent questions about design plagiarism: Where do you draw the line between paying homage to a design classic and copying it? How close is too close?

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In a summer of Suicide Squad and Ben-Hur, it can feel like big-budget popcorn flicks have never been more awful. They have.

In a summer of Suicide Squad and Ben-Hur, it can feel like big-budget popcorn flicks have never been more awful. They have.

To hear the curmudgeons and film snobs tell it, the summer of 2016 has churned out some of the most soul-crushingly awful Hollywood blockbusters in recent memory—from the superhero anti-epic Suicide Squad to the dead-on-arrival sequel to Independence Day. By the time the laughable Ben-Hur limped into multiplexes last weekend, the narrative had been solidified: The latest summer blockbuster season has been an exceptionally terrible one.

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Clinton generally favors continuing Obama’s cyber policies, while Trump calls for more cyber warfare and surveillance.

Clinton generally favors continuing Obama’s cyber policies, while Trump calls for more cyber warfare and surveillance.

From alleged Russian attacks on Democratic National Committee servers and the vulnerability of Hillary Clinton’s emails to the ongoing debate over law enforcement access to encrypted data, cybersecurity and related privacy issues have become part of the presidential election cycle like never before.

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Unless Aunt Brenda is a professional career coach, you should take her advice with a grain of salt.

Unless Aunt Brenda is a professional career coach, you should take her advice with a grain of salt.

For most of us, our first experience with career advice comes from one source: our parents. As we go through life, the people who have the most interest in the direction we take with our careers continue to be those who are closest to us, like our significant others, friends, mentors, and professors.

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An increasingly diverse array of geospatial, network, and time-series data is being used to generate new perspectives and insights about us.

An increasingly diverse array of geospatial, network, and time-series data is being used to generate new perspectives and insights about us.

One of the lesser understood aspects of what you can do with massive stockpiles of data is the ability to use data that would traditionally have been overlooked or in some cases even considered rubbish. This whole new category of data is known as “exhaust” data—data generated as a by-product of some other process.

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Apple Music is betting on smart curation, big names & hip partners to make us forget the U2 album debacle.

Apple Music is betting on smart curation, big names & hip partners to make us forget the U2 album debacle.

September 9, 2014 was a pivotal day for Apple. On stage at the Flint Center in Cupertino, the company’s executives proudly revealed sleek, media-ready renderings of new gadgets, marking Apple’s biggest product lineup refresh in years: two new and bigger iPhones, a long-rumored smart watch, and Apple Pay, the company’s first foray into wireless mobile payments. As the two-hour flurry of announcements wound down, Apple CEO Tim Cook borrowed his predecessor’s “one more thing” schtick, albeit without uttering those exact words.

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Sure, they seem like no big deal now. But be careful of these key areas of future regret.

Sure, they seem like no big deal now. But be careful of these key areas of future regret.

Scrolling through my social media feed, I noticed a college friend’s photograph of his son’s dormitory. My friend and I had been thick as thieves during our undergraduate years, and now his son was leaving home, and roughly the age his father was when he and I first met.

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The newly added pen functions are interesting, but overall the pen seems to be searching for clear use cases.

The newly added pen functions are interesting, but overall the pen seems to be searching for clear use cases.

This is the third in a three-part series reviewing Samsung’s important new Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. The first part concerned the device’s design. The second concerned the device’s new iris scanner.

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Back in June, complaints were filed with the FEC over such fundraising emails. But they’re still being sent to non-U.S. lawmakers.

Back in June, complaints were filed with the FEC over such fundraising emails. But they’re still being sent to non-U.S. lawmakers.

The emails signed by Donald J. Trump or his children come at all hours. Sometimes in the middle of the afternoon, Sir Roger Gale looks down at his iPhone and sees that he’s been invited to dinner as an “honorary guest” if he makes a contribution. Other times, he’s just asked to give money to “make America great again.” And some mornings Gale is asked to sign a petition to “send Hillary and her corrupt Clinton Foundation packing for good!”

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